During its 2010 season Kinneret Regional Project discovered an ancient synagogue on Horvat Kur, a village inhabited from the Early Roman through the Early Mediaeval periods located on a gentle hill 2 km west of the Lake of Galilee (www.kinneret-excavations.org). So far, almost the entire western wall (10 m) was excavated, including an entrance for a double-winged door. The wall is made of carefully dressed basalt ashlars. Inside the wall, a simple stone bench ran alongside the wall, only interrupted by the entrance. The building seems to have been oriented North-South. At least in its last phase of use, the floor was made of a high-quality grey plaster.
To the west of the building, a cobblestone pavement covered a small courtyard that very likely was supported by a simple porch. Coin finds and pottery from this area indicate that the synagogue might already have been in use at around 400 CE, but further analysis is necessary. Fragments of pilasters and other architectural elements found close by in tumble will eventually contribute to the reconstruction of the synagogue’s layout and design.
Together with the well-known synagogues at Capernaum and Chorazin (both ca. 5th / 6th c. CE) and the recently discovered ones at Khirbet Hammam (2nd / 3rd c. CE) and Magdala (1st c. CE), the new synagogue at Horvat Kur (tentatively dated to the 4th / 5th c. CE) adds new evidence for a very tight net of synagogues in a relatively small area on the north-western shores of the Lake of Galilee.
Parallel excavations in the domestic area of Horvat Kur produced important data about everyday life in a Galilean village during the Early Christian and Talmudic periods. Excavations will be continued next year.
Excavations were directed by Jürgen Zangenberg (Leiden University) and sponsored by the Universities of Bern (co-director Stefan Münger), Helsinki (co-director Juha Pakkala) and Leiden. 30 volunteers and staff from the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, Romania, Belgium, Spain, Israel and Germany contributed to this wonderful success. For a full report on the activities of Kinneret Regional Project 2010 which also comprised continuous analysis of material excavated on Tel Kinrot until 2008 see www.kinneret-excavations.org/news.html.
Jürgen Zangenberg and Stefan Münger (acting directors of Kinneret Regional Project 2010), Raimo Hakola (representative of the University of Helsinki team)
j.k.zangenberg@religion.leidenuniv.nl, in Israel +972-52-6479265
stefan.muenger@theol.unibe.ch, in Switzerland +41-79-7549726. or +41-31-3319750
raimo.hakola@helsinki.fi, +358-504155260